Bright and early Saturday morning, self was in front of SFMOMA. She had tickets for the opening day of the Rene Magritte exhibit. There was a crowd waiting for the doors to open at 10 a.m.

Below was one of the first Magrittes she saw. Of course, she immediately thought: THE DAILY POST PHOTO CHALLENGE! Good thing they allowed pictures.

Rene Magritte at SFMOMA

This morning, self had her usual cup of coffee: Organic Rendezvous Brew, purchased at Moody’s in Mendocino. The cup she used was something she bought at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, years ago: that’s a triceratops, half-submerged in her coffee:

On self’s way home to Redwood City today (She’s participating in a reading in Oakland tonight to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of CLEAVE, the Bay Area Women Writers collective), she decided to stop and grab coffee in the small town of Cloverdale.

Cloverdale is where self picks up Route 128 to Mendocino, so she passes through every single time she goes to and from Mendocino.

Today, she decided to look around. Right on N. Cloverdale Blvd. was a line of wash (lol).

It turned out to be an art installation by Allegra Burke and Beth Hartmann. The name of the work is “Hung Up.” It’s right next to Plank Coffee.

Self doubts she would have decided to shoot the picture if she hadn’t specifically been looking for pictures that fit this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge: TOUR GUIDE.

Eating with Emily at Fabulous Chéz Nous, 22 Hanway Place, London. We waited for this meal: it was a promise we made to each other when self left London last July. Emily’s daughter directed the Wonder Woman movie.

The below are from last spring, when self was at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig. As soon as she woke up, she’d start writing. Sometimes she wouldn’t bother sleeping. So, coffee. Loads and loads of coffee.

Self’s unit had a window seat in the second-floor studio. Also, a previous resident had left behind a paperback copy of George R. R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings, which helped.

Kitchen Window

Self kept herself going with coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. This last trip, she brought Philz coffee from San Francisco.

Self took this picture yesterday. She was walking to Corners of the Mouth Organic Market because she ran out of coffee. She bought $22 worth, and the salesperson remarked, “That’s a lot of coffee.” Self responded, “No. Not really.” That was about a lb. and a half. Which is, seriously, not a whole lot.

Evening, Mendocino Village. State of Mind = SERENE.

Every year, for the past several years, self has devoted herself to re-telling one folk tale, fairy tale, or Bible story. Last year, it was “Noah’s Ark” (Her version is published in Local Nomad and is called, simply, “The Ark”).

This year, self is focusing on the fairy tale “Wild Swans.”

She was with Mary-Ellen Campbell a few days ago, chatting about her story, when Mary-Ellen told her that she made a book about swans. Self went trotting off behind Mary-Ellen to her studio. And. Holy. Cow. Isn’t that the most fantastic-looking book EVER?

It was supposed to be a one-shot. It’s now 40+ chapters and 30K words.

The idea of a Cheating Peeta is so delicious.

Self got a storm of negative comments at first (Is this even Peeta? This Peeta is NOTHING like the Peeta in The Hunger Games! Maybe you should call him something else? Also, WHY would Peeta cheat on Katniss? Is this possibly a modern AU version of Hijacked Peeta?) but she noticed that the number of views she was getting for this story were very high. And the comment feed just kept growing. And growing. And growing. Three weeks later, Cheating Peeta rules! More comments than any new story posted last month. Even beat out Vampire Peeta! Who knew?

Today, she had Delly going ape over Peeta in a Starbucks, dousing him with scalding coffee. Because she was overcome with jealousy watching him have coffee with Prim (Katniss herself is in Cambodia. Why? Because self doesn’t think there’s a single fan fic set in Cambodia? No, she knows there is not a single fan fic set in Cambodia!), not to mention that Philz was just two blocks away, why’d they have to choose Starbucks?

Suddenly, after posting today, self started getting comments like: Boy, that is one whack job. She’s not only a whack job, her therapist is a whack job. No, actually, everyone in your story, including Cheating Peeta, is delusional and ought to be committed.